I didn’t think I needed advice from someone else on how to make friends or influence people.

Neither of these points could have been further from the truth.

I’ll use Carnegie’s own words to answer the first point:

“The principles taught in this book will work only when they come from the heart. I am not advocating a bag of tricks. I am talking about a new way of life.”

Or perhaps you’d prefer something from Henry Ford:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”

Neither of those statements entails manipulative shortcuts. As you’ll see, it is impossible to apply Carnegie’s tips without genuinely becoming a kinder, more thoughtful person.

As for the second: If you feel uncomfortable reading books on self-improvement, I hear you. The question to ask yourself though is, “What have I got to lose?”

Carnegie’s wise words on the topic are:

“Nothing will work in all cases – and nothing will work with all people. If you are satisfied with the results you are now getting, why change? If you are not satisfied, why not experiment?”

And it’s an important argument that authors like Timothy Ferriss are are still using today:

“Much of what I recommend will seem impossible and even offensive to basic common sense – I expect that. Resolve now to test the concepts as an exercise in lateral thinking.”

A bet with minimal downside, and a high upside, is one that you should take every time.

And how big is the upside? It’s high. According to the late John D. Rockefeller:

“The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee, and I will pay more for the ability than for any other under the sun.”

Convinced? The good news is that this book is not only good on “Why” and “What”, it’s also great on “How”.

Carnegie ran his popular self-improvement programs for decades with participants from every conceivable walk of life. His book is full of their stories. Stories about how they applied these principles. Stories about the huge changes they made in their own lives.

Reinventing the wheel is an extremely difficult and masochistic pastime. You may remember these wise words from Seneca: tutor to Roman emperors and (at one time) one of the wealthiest men alive:

“There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.”

Read this book. Learn from it. Keep it handy. Refer back to it often (I wish I had followed this advice more faithfully).

It will make you a better person. It will improve your life. Most importantly, it will improve the lives of the people you love and the people you meet each day.

And remember:

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world… as in being able to remake ourselves.”Mahatma Gandhi

N.B., this feels like a bit of a cheat book crunch as the material is already extremely well organised. You’ll notice a lot more direct quoting than usual. Mainly because “If it ain’t broke…”. Enjoy!

3 Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

Don’t criticise, condemn, or complain.“Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts his sense of importance and arouses resentment.” Put as much time and space between emotion and action as possible. Empathise and forgive. Do not measure others by the standards you set for yourself.

Give honest and sincere appreciation.“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” but avoid hollow flattery. Instead, make your appreciation heartfelt, sincere and unselfish. Flattery is easily detected and universally condemned.

Arouse in the other person an eager want.“The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it… you may want to persuade somebody to do something. Before you speak, pause and ask yourself: ‘How can I make this person want to do it?'”

6 Ways to Make People Like You

Become genuinely interested in other people.“You can make more friends in two months by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you… If we want to make friends, let’s put ourselves out to do things for other people – things that require time, energy, unselfishness and thoughtfulness”. Make it a priority to keep an eye out for things that might improve other people’s lives.A great practical tip from Carnegie is as simple as follows:

Take the time to find out the birthday’s of friends and acquaintances.

Make a note of them in your calendar.

Take the time each year to send a physical card.

This kind of thoughtfulness costs very little but has a huge impact.

Smile.“The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back.” Smile in everything that you do. Smile sincerely, “An insincere grin… doesn’t fool anybody. We know it is mechanical and we resent it.”. Don’t feel like smiling? Consider Abraham Lincoln’s remark that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Still struggling? Fake it until you make it. Force yourself to smile and the mind will often follow.

Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.“The average person is more interested in their own name than in all the other names in the world put together.” Remembering a person’s name is a question of effort not ability. Ask a person’s name. Pay attention. Make sure you’ve heard it. Spell it out if need be. Repeat it several times. Build a mental picture. Write it down. Don’t then become the weirdo who thinks repeating the other person’s name after every sentence will make them like you. That’s not how it works, be cool.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. “Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.” Doing so will soften and subdue even the most violent critic and you may also learn a thing or two. “To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that the other person will enjoy answering.” And remember: “A person’s toothache means more to [them] than a famine… which kills a million people.”

Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.“The royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most.” Take the time to understand or even research a topic you know is of interest to someone else. Ask them about their past: “Almost every successful person likes to reminisce about their early struggles.” Doing so will not only improve your relationship, it might enlarge your life.

Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Obey this golden rule “All the time, everywhere”. Use little phrases like “I’m sorry to trouble you,” “Would you be so kind as to – ?” “Would you mind?” and “Thank you.” “Almost all the people you meet feel superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their heats is to let them realise in some subtle way that you realise their importance and recognise it sincerely.”

12 Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lost it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.” because “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still”. Instead try to:

Welcome the disagreement: This might be an opportunity to avoid a serious mistake.

Watch out for and distrust your first instinct to be defensive.

Control your temper.

Listen first.

Look first for areas of agreement.

Be honest about and apologise for your mistakes.

Promise to think over your opponent’s ideas and study them carefully.

Thank the other person sincerely for their time and interest.

Postpone action to give both sides time to think through the problem.

Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say “You’re wrong.” It’s “tantamount to saying: ‘I’m smarter than you are.'” Instead, consider that “you will never get into trouble by admitting that you may be wrong” and see the above point. Even if you know you are right, try something like: “I may be wrong. I frequently am. If I’m wrong I want to be put right. Let’s examine the facts.”

If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.” Have the courage to admit your errors. Let the other person take the role of a collaborative and benevolent forgiver rather than an opponent.

Begin in a friendly way. Friendliness begets friendliness. Glow with it. Overflow with it. Remember that “a drop of honey can catch more flies than a gallon of gall.” and see also Aesop’s fable “The Wind and the Sun”.

Get the other person saying ‘yes, yes’ immediately.“Begin by emphasising – and keep emphasising – the things on which you agree… that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose.” Try to begin with questions to which the only conceivable reply is “Yes”. This will help things get off on a collaborative foot. And remember, “he who treads softly goes far.”

Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.“Let other people talk themselves out. They know more about their business and problems than you do. So ask the questions. Let them tell you a few things… Don’t [interrupt]… They won’t pay attention to you while they still have a lot of ideas of their own crying for expression”. Don’t waste air boasting about your own achievements: “If you want enemies, excel your friends; but if you want friends, let your friends excel you.”

Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.“You have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you.” Allow others to design and become invested in their own solutions. Consult with them, collaborate on and influence a half finished idea rather than presenting a final solution. Avoid self-importance, instead remember “The reason why rivers and seas receive the home of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them.”

Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view. Take the time to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. If you can, sit down with a piece of paper and a pen. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin with the words: “What X is probably feeling now is…” Keep writing from their perspective until the timer goes off.

Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires. Begin always with “I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do. If I were you I would undoubtedly feel just as you do.” Be honest about your own flaws and idiosyncrasies. It will help you be more sympathetic with those of others. Remember “Three-fourths of the people you will ever meet are hungering and thirsting for sympathy. Give it to them, and they will love you”.

Appeal to the nobler motives.“People are honest and want to discharge their obligations, the exceptions to that rule are comparatively few”. They “will in most cases react favourably if you make them feel that you consider them honest, upright and fair”.

Dramatise your ideas. Present your ideas in an interesting, creative and dramatic way that captures attention. Think laterally; how can you present tabular data in a creative way that encourages interaction and engages more of the senses than just sight? Take your inspiration from television and advertising – they’ve been in this game a long time.

Throw down a challenge.“The way to get things done is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid money-getting way, but in the desire to excel.” Pay is not enough to motivate people. Instead the work itself must be motivating and exciting. Make performance metrics public. Let people enjoy a challenge. “That is what every successful person loves: the game. The chance for self-expression. The chance to prove his or her worth, to excel, to win.”

9 Ways to Be a Leader and Change People Without Giving Offence or Arousing Resentment

N.b., the judgement and skill behind the “How” in this section is more advanced and subtle. Carnegie illustrates them with some superb examples that are well worth reading in full.

Begin with praise and honest appreciation.“Beginning with praise is like the dentist who begins with his work with Novocain. The patient still gets a drilling, but the Novocain is pain-killing.”

Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly. A great tip given here is to use the word “and” whenever you feel like using the word “but”. This avoids devaluing the initial praise and move feedback to a “good to greater” mindset.

Talk about your own mistakes before criticising the other person.“Admitting one’s own mistakes – even when one hasn’t corrected them – can help convince somebody to change his behaviour.” Call attention to or remember back to when you also struggled with whatever it is you are giving feedback on. Be open and specific with your examples. Talk about how you (wish you’d) worked through them instead of criticising directly.

Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.“Asking questions not only makes an order more palatable; it often stimulates the creativity of the persons whom you ask.” N.B., this doesn’t work with obviously leading questions. Instead, see “Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.”

Let the other person save face.“I have no right to say or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him, but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.” It’s also a quick way to shutting down collaboration completely. Even if you must correct or criticise someone, never do it in front of someone else. “Even if we are right and the other person is definitely wrong, we only destroy ego by causing someone to lose face.”

Praise every improvement.“Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement.” Can you look back on your own life and see where a few words of praise have sharply changed your entire future? Be specific and sincere. Remember, “we all crave appreciation and recognition, and will do almost anything to get it. But nobody wants insincerity. Nobody wants flattery.”

Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.“If you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics.”

Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. “Be liberal with your encouragement, make the thing seem easy to do, let the other person know that you have faith in his ability to do it, that he has an undeveloped flair for it – and he will practise until the dawn comes in the window in order to excel.”

Make the other person (as) happy (as possible) about doing what you suggest. Even when the task is irreparably undesirable. Try the following approach:

Be sincere. Do not promise anything you can’t deliver. Forget about yourself and concentrate on the benefits to the other person.

Be clear. Know exactly what you want the other person to do.

Be empathetic. Ask yourself what the other person really wants.

Consider the benefits the other person will receive from doing what you suggest.

Match those benefits to the other person’s wants.

Convey the request in a form that highlights those benefits.

Extra: How to make the most of the book

I’m including Carnegie’s own list of tips for making the most of his book because they’re solid advice for reading and self-improvement in general.

Have a deep desire to learn and a determination to increase your ability to deal with people.

TANQ entries for 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'

“The person who has technical knowledge plus the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people – that person is headed for higher earning power.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee… And I will pay more for that ability than any other under the sun.”

— John D. Rockefeller, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Health is the prime interest of adults… their second interest is people; how to understand and get along with people; how to make people like you; and how to win others to your way of thinking.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

— Herbert Spencer, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“For years I kept an engagement book showing all the appointments I had during the day. My family never made any plans for me on Saturday night, for the family knew that I devoted a part of each Saturday evening to the illuminating process of self-examination and review and appraisal. After dinner, I went off by myself, opened my engagement book, and thought over all the interviews, discussions and meetings that had taken place during the week. I asked myself:

What mistakes did I make that time?

What did I do that was right – and in what way could I have improved my performance?

What lessons can I learn from that experience?

… This system of self-analysis, self-education, continued year after year, did more for me than any other one thing I have ever attempted.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts his sense of importance, and arouses resentment.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbour’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean.”

— Confucious, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.”

— Thomas Carlyle, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices nd motivated by pride and vanity.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“I will speak ill of no man… and speak all the good I know of everybody.”

— Benjamin Franklin, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“I will speak ill of no man… and speak all the good I know of everybody.”

— Benjamin Franklin, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything…. and that is by making the other person want to do it. Remember, there is no other way.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The deepest urge in human nature is ‘the desire to be important.'”

— John Dewey, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Some of the people most things want include:

1. Health and the preservation of life.2. Food.3. Sleep.4. Money and the things money will buy.5. Life in the hereafter.6. Sexual gratification.7. The well-being of our children.8. A feeling of importance.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. There is nothing that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticise anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.”

— Charles Schwab, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Here lies a man who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himself.” (Epitaph)

— Andrew Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”

— General Alvaro Obregon, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

— Disputed, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Action springs out of what we fundamentally desire… and the best piece of advice which can be given to would-be persuaders, whether in business, in the home, in the school, in politics, is: First arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walks a lonely way.”

— Hard A. Overstreet, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“[Andrew Carnegie’s] sister in law was worried sick over her two boys. They were at Yale, and they were so busy with their own affairs that they neglected to write home and paid no attention whatever to their mother’s frantic letters.

Then Carnegie offered to wager a hundred dollars that he could get an answer by return mail, without even asking for it. Someone called his bet; so he wrote his nephews a chatty letter, mentioning casually in a postscript that he was sending each one a five-dollar bill.

He neglected, however, to enclose the money.

Back came the replies by return mail thanking ‘Dear Uncle Andrew’ for his kind note and – you can finish the sentence yourself.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Most people go through college and learn to read Virgil and master the mysteries of calculus without ever discovering how their own minds function.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.”

— Alfred Adler, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“You have to be interested in people if you want to be a successful writer of stories.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“[Howard] Thurston’s method was totally different. He told me that every time he went on stage he said to himself: ‘I am grateful because these people have come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way. I’m going to give them the very best I possibly can.’

He declared he never stepped in front of the footlights without first saying to himself over and over: ‘I love my audience. I love my audience.'”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“We are interested in others when they are interested in us.”

— Publius Syrus, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back… That is why dogs make such a hit. They are so glad to see us that they almost jump out of their skins. So naturally, we are glad to see them.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“You must have a good time meeting people if you expect them to have a good time meeting you.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”

— William James, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

— William Shakespeare, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

— Abraham Lincoln, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Whenever you go out-of-doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then, without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal. Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do, and then, as the days go gliding away, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the element it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual… Thought is supreme. Preserve a right mental attitude – the attitude of courage, frankness, and good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are gods in chrysalis.”

— Elbert Hubbard, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.”

— Chinese Proverb, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The Value of a Smile at Christmas

It costs nothing, but creates much.It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends.It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and Nature’s best antidote for trouble.Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody till it is given away.And if in the last-minute rush of Christmas buying some of our salespeople should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours?For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give!”

— A New York Department Store, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The average person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Few human beings are proof against the implied flattery of rapt attention.”

— Jack Woodford, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“There is no mystery about successful business intercourse… Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.”

— Charles W. Eliot, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“If you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems. A person’s toothache means more to that person than a famine in China which kills a million people.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Whenever Roosevelt expected a visitor, he sat up late the night before reading up on the subject in which he knew his guest was particularly interested. For … the royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

— Jesus Christ, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and the sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you realize their importance, and recognize it sincerely.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours.”

— Benjamin Disraeli, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument – and that is to avoid it… You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lost it; and if you win it, you lose it.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“A man convinced against his willIs of the same opinion still.”

— Anon, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love.”

— Gautama Buddha, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Yield larger things to which you show no more than equal rights; and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for that right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.”

— Abraham Lincoln, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“When one yells, the other should listen – because when two people yell, there is no communication, just noise and bad vibrations.”

— Jan Peerce, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Men must be taught as if you taught them notAnd things unknown proposed as things forgot.”

— Alexander Pope, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it within himself.”

— Galileo Galilei, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”

— Lord Chesterfield, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“You will never get into trouble by admitting that you may be wrong. That will stop all argument and inspire your opponent to be just as fair and open and broad-minded as you are. It will make him want to admit that he, too, may be wrong.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship.”

— James Harvey Robinson, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“When we are wrong, we may admit it to ourselves. And if we are handled gently and tactfully, we may admit it to others and even take pride in our frankness and broad-mindedness. But not if someone is trying to ram an unpalatable fact down our oesophagus.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.”

— Anon, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“If you come at me with your fists doubled, I think I can promise you that mine will double as fast as yours; but if you come to me and say, ‘Let us sit down and take counsel together, and, if we differ from each other, understand why it is that we differ, just what the points at issue are’, we will presently find that we are not so far apart after all, that the points on which we differ are few and the points on which we agree are many, and that if we only have the patience and candour and the desire to get together, we will get together.”

— Woodrow Wilson, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“He who treads softly goes far.”

— Chinese Proverb, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. So the sage, wishing to be above men, putteth himself below them; wishing to be before them, he putteth himself behind them. Thus, though his place be above men, they do not feel his weight; though his place be before them, they do not count it an injury.”

— Lao-tse, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Stop a minute to contrast your keen interest in your own affairs with your mild concerns about anything else. Realise then, that everybody else in the world feels exactly the same way! Then, along with Lincoln and Roosevelt, you will have grasped the only solid foundation for interpersonal relationships; namely, that success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person’s viewpoint.”

— Kenneth M. Goode, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Sympathy the human species universally craves. The child eagerly displays his injury; or even inflicts a cut or bruise in order to reap abundant sympathy. For the dame purpose adults… show their bruises, relate their accidents, illness, especially details of surgical operations. ‘Self-pity’ for misfortunes real or imaginary is, in some measure, practically a universal practice.”

— Dr. Arthur I. Gates, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“A person usually has two reasons for doing a thing: one that sounds good and a real one.”

— J. Pierpont Morgan, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“Nothing will work in all cases – and nothing will work with all people. If you are satisfied with the results you are now getting, why change? If you are not satisfied, why not experiment?”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The way to get things done is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid money-getting way, but in the desire to excel.”

— Charles Schwab, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory.”

— Motto of the King’s Guard in ancient Greece, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“That is what every successful person loves: the game. The chance for self-expression. The chance to prove his or her worth, to excel, to win.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“It isn’t nearly so difficult to listen to a recital of your faults if the person criticising begins by humbly admitting that he, too, is far from impeccable.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“I have no right to say or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him, but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“If you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics.”

— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear to do and get a record of successful experiences behind you.”

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S. Vitone

The first time I read this book was when I was in middle school. The information within its pages was so useful and relevant that I incorporated it into my own core belief system. I’ve read How to Win Friends and Influence People several times since then, each time taking some new lesson and incorporating it. This book holds invaluable lessons for interpersonal relationships.

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1 year ago

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Arthur

I absolutely agree, S. Two of my favourite points are (1) to make a point of remembering names and (2) to make the effort to send out physical birthday cards. The most valuable win from the first is to puts you into conversations with an intention to really listen – this then tends to carry on through the rest of the interaction. The second has warmed my heart and brought more joy to my friends than anything else I’ve yet stumbled upon. The good-will and good-feeling generated in sending a physical and genuine token of gratitude and appreciation to a… Read more »